Gate lodge and gateway to Croydon Road Recreation Ground

Gate lodge and gateway to Croydon Road Recreation Ground

This gate lodge and gateway were built between 1890 and 1891 when the park was laid out by the landscape architects Reid and Bornemann of Sydenham.

The lodge is constructed of red brick with a wooden veranda, a lead-covered dome to a bay window, and slate-covered roofs with ridge tiles. It comprises a single-storey main range, square in plan beneath a pyramidal roof, with a single-storey wing under hipped and gabled roofs at the west corner and a porch on the north-west side.

The main range features a large pyramidal roof supported by timber arcades forming verandas facing the park on the south-east and north-east sides. These timber verandas are formed of Tuscan columns supporting three-centred arches with projecting keystones and a moulded cornice. Each arcade column rests on a square pedestal, and a wooden picket fence stands in front of the south-east arcade. The south-east elevation has a brick and stone plinth and a central door opening containing a half-glazed three-over-three pane timber door. The north-east elevation features a large multi-pane casement window. At the angle between these elevations is a projecting circular bay with a moulded plinth and cills, a continuous band of glazing comprising three-over-three paned casements and fixed windows, topped by a cornice beneath a ribbed ogee dome surmounted by a ball finial. The main pyramidal roof is topped by a large corbelled chimney with a moulded base and four flues. The south-west elevation has two large six-light multi-paned casements. A lean-to porch on the north-west side of the main range forms a side entrance, and the wing beyond has a chimney, a large six-light casement window, a smaller casement and a slate-hung gable to the north-west elevation under gabled and hipped roofs.

The interior contains a long spine corridor running from the main south-east entrance, with two bedrooms, a living room and dining room leading off it. The north-west cross-wing contains the kitchen, and there is a porch with a half-glazed entrance door, a main vestibule and two boarded doors leading to spaces that may originally have been lavatories or changing rooms. Many fixtures and fittings are of later 20th-century date, including the fireplaces, kitchen units and sanitary ware, but earlier features survive, including four-panelled doors with brass door furniture, built-in cupboards and wooden joinery. The floors are largely carpeted, but parquet flooring is believed to survive beneath the carpets.

The main gateway to the park stands next to the gate lodge, forming an architectural grouping with it. It comprises a central carriage gate flanked by smaller pedestrian gates with square gate piers built of brick with stone dressings. The piers have a chamfered plinth, a cornice and stone coping. Surmounting the coping are lamp standards with glass globes held in iron bands, with iron pedestals and finials to the piers of the main gate and plainer ball finials to the side gates. Between the piers are gates with curved tops formed of iron railings with ornamental spear heads. Dwarf walls topped by railings curve outwards from the gate and end in a further set of piers topped by ball finials.